Remember When Miranda Lambert Made Her Acting Debut on ‘Law & Order: SVU’?

Miranda Lambert is ultra-confident, but she had to put that on the back burner for her acting debut.

Lambert played an actress named Lacey Ford who is sexually assaulted by a reality TV producer in an episode of Law & Order: SVU titled "Father's Shadow" in 2012. Michael McKean played the producer, and Harry Connick, Jr. was also on hand in a recurring role as Executive ADA David Hade, a straight-shooting prosecutor.

"She's pretty much desperate at this point," Lambert says of the character. "She's been in New York a while, and she's really wanting to find that first big opportunity." So desperate, in fact, that she declines a rape kit after the assault, because she's afraid she'll lose her break if the producer goes to jail.

The role was a big challenge for the singer.

"I had to really pull from my gut on this whole role that I was playing, because I'm a very strong, confident person; I'm sort of like a kick-ass kinda girl, and I was definitely playing a more subdued, naive character," she observes. "So I had to really transfrom my personality, which I wasn't sure I could until I got on the set. I just sort of tried to put myself in her shoes."

Despite her confidence, Lambert admitted she was nervous about her debut.

"This was really nerve-wracking all around, but also exciting, because I've never acted before at all, besides music videos, which I don't have any lines in," she says with a laugh. "And then playing an actress trying to get a role is like an audition — it was kind of like an audition within an audition. It was sort of my audition for myself, to see if I could even act at all. And also, my favorite show on Earth is SVU, so I definitely had those nerves going on that deal."

She needn't have worried; Entertainment Weekly singled her out for her small role, writing, "Lambert quickly communicated a convincing air of sodden despair and desperation ... Lambert really made you feel Lacey’s addled yearning."